6 Reasons Why You Aren’t Progressing in the Gym
by Nishant Mandal
You see, the key to fitness success and reaching your goals is progress. It’s the thing that keeps us moving in the right direction. It builds tremendous amount of momentum and it keeps us motivated and wanting more. As soon as you see that things are working and changing, you’re well on your way to transforming your body and health.
The problem is, progress can easily come to a screeching halt. We can feel like we haven’t started to make progress or it can feel like we’re no longer making progress and are stuck in a plateau.
Here are some key points that can be a deferment to your progress.
- Too much volume: For the principle of supercompensation to apply and adaptations to occur, adequate rest is needed following any given stimulus (in this case exercise ). More does not always equal better, especially when it comes to training.
- Too little volume: Adaptation needs time but also adequate exposure to a certain training stimulus so that the body can respond by super compensation. Even if your main priority is max strength or power, do not neglect the accessory work. That’s how the needed volume is built.
- Inappropriate frequency: Training a certain movement too often might not allow enough time to recover, however it largely depends on the type of movement and the number and type of muscle fibres, the impact on your CNS and several other variables. Similarly not stimulating a muscle too often especially a small one, which requires minimal recovery, might not lead to sufficient adaptations for it to grow stronger.
- External Stressors: The body cannot differentiate between physical and psychological stress. Lack of sleep, poor nutrition or any other stressor can interfere by subtracting energy that the body requires to repair damaged tissue. When you prioritise a specific performance goal, you must put your body in the best possible environment for that goal to be achieved.
- You aren’t enjoying your workouts: If there is one thing I know, it’s that you’ll never get into the best shape of your life while hating your workouts. If they cause you any amount of confusion, frustration, or intimidation, they aren’t going to work. You’ll never be consistent enough with them to see the progress you want. And this is what happens to most of us, who aren’t seeing the progress we want. We are unsure of what to do for workouts. We are intimidated to try something different than the treadmill or elliptical. We get tired of the same old boring routine. These things all add up to consistency and motivation dropping, then we quit and progress ends.
- You’re not focusing on getting stronger: Think of your overall fitness as a house. It all starts with your strength. Your overall strength is the foundation of that house. Without that foundation it doesn’t matter how big your house is, it will fail. In fitness terms, this means you won’t reach your potential or worse, get injured. With a strong foundation of strength, everything else fitness related only gets better. Your running improves. Your yoga improves. Your cardio improves. Your injury prevention improves. Your workout intensity improves and so do your results. Strength simply allows you to get more out of your workouts.
Nishant Mandal is a certified Personal trainer/Online fitness coach based out of Delhi NCR. He is ACE-CPT, Crossfit L-1, PN-L1 certified and Calisthenics enthusiast, Deadlift Junkie, Movement & Mobility expertise. Getting people to move and better themselves since 2010 through individualised and challenging routines but not much than what one can’t handle. You can connect with him on Twitter @NishantPTrainer.
